Cold Comfort

By JIM RENDON

Published: March 18, 2012

Scott Holman didn't think too much before he bought a lighthouse. In the fall of 1999, a local radio station announced that the Granite Island lighthouse, built in 1868, and the 2.5-acre island on which it sits were being auctioned off by the federal government. Without mentioning anything to his wife, Martine, he put in a bid for $86,003. She found out about it when a local newspaper called to ask how it felt to own a lighthouse.

Holman, a 70-year-old Michigan entrepreneur, hadn't inspected the lighthouse before purchasing it. He saw the island in 1963, when he was a student at Northern Michigan University in Marquette, and even then the place was abandoned. The island is five miles off the coast of Michigan's Upper Peninsula in Lake Superior and 10 miles from the nearest marina. He and Martine arrived on a beautiful April day in 2000 to look at the house. ''It was a disaster,'' Martine says. They found snow in the basement: there were holes in the roof and in the floors above. ''Normal contractors didn't want anything to do with it,'' Scott Holman says. For two summers he would bring a local carpenter and his crew to the island on Monday mornings and pick them up again Thursday evenings. The workers lived in a tent, and when weather was bad, they had to stay until the storm and waves subsided.

Holman logged more than 4,000 miles on his boat in those two years. ''You really get a sense of what it must have been like to be a lighthouse keeper in the 1800s with no communication, no mail, no fresh food,'' he says. Wildflowers grow across the island and thousands of seagulls nest there in the summer. The island's rocks are covered in lichen that glows yellow and orange in the evening light. ''At night you can just sit out on the deck and watch the northern lights,'' he says. ''It's a thrill every time I go out there.''

PHOTOS: LOCATION: Granite Island, Mich. DATE OF PURCHASE: Fall 1999 PURCHASE PRICE: $86,003 SPECIAL FEATURES: Solar-power system augmented by a wind turbine and a small generator.; WEATHERED: Granite Island had been abandoned for 60 years when Scott Holman bought it. The island is covered in ice all winter, and when Holman fi rst inspected his property in April 2000, he found holes in the roof, snow in the basement and badly damaged interiors like the dining room, pictured above. (PHOTOGRAPHS FROM SCOTT HOLMAN); SKY WALK: A platform rings the restored lantern room. ''You can go up there, have a beer and enjoy the sunset,'' Scott Holman says. (MM60); SHIP SHAPE: The couple bought this ship's telegraph, used to send instructions to the engine room, from a Paris fl ea market.; HIGH RISERS: Spiral stairs climb to the lantern room. A small guest bedroom and the master bedroom (left) occupy the second floor. (PHOTOGRAPHS BY DAVID LA SPINA) (MM61)
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